Terry, it's nice to hear from you again. How are things going with you?

Yes, it is possible to wake up earlier in the morning, but I don't want to! I already wake up at 5:30/5:45 a.m. (on the days when I hit the snooze button for 10 more minutes ) in order to be out of the house by 6:30 a.m. and I am NOT a morning person! I'll get up at 5:00 a.m. if I HAD to, but not so I could clean the house! I know myself too well to even pretend that that would be something I'd do.

Bless, honey, I'm exhuasted just looking at your schedule. And that's after a whole day of work & commuting!

You're just too tired to do all that work on your second (unpaid) job.

I am used to having my evening meal (supper) between 5:00 and 5:30. I can't imagine eating supper as late as you do, but I guess that's just the difference in local custom.

The other posters who suggest that your high standards are the culprit are right. It can be hard to change that, but would be worth trying.

Elaine

Definitely don't get up earlier in your case.

I'd ditto looking at easing up on yourself with the housekeeping. Go for tidy, sanitary, pleasant, rather than "pristine". You might decide to take an off day every six months or so to do some deep cleaning, but don't expect that every week!

Yes, I definitely have been rather tired in the evenings.

I guess I will give myself a little time to adjust to the new schedule and not feel like I am goofing off when I should be doing more housework.

Today, I did the grocery shopping, and put gas to the car. Visited my mother's grave (today was the anniversary of her birth). Cooked a roast beef (sufficient for several meals). Emptied the waste baskets and took the trash cans to the curb. Sewed a few more patches for the quilt. I will focus on what I did and NOT on what I didn't do (mop the kitchen floor).

Stop pushing yourself soooooo hard. Whatever you don't get done will be there when you are ready for it. My house is now clean on the surface and looks good when people come over(rarely), but I know there are some dust bunnies hiding. Concentrate on the time with DD, enjoy the social and don't have such high expectations.

I have been doing some serious re evaluation of my own life and standards, and guess what. If you were to die tomorrow, no one is going to say Bless's house was immaculate. they are going to say what a great person and great mom she was and forget about the chores. If you stop worrying so much, it won't matter.....I have started doing it and it works.

BL: Thanks. No, no one is ever going to say my house was immaculate! I guess I am my own worst critic at times.

Bless.....aren't we all!!!

I just keep looking at how my life has changed over the past 4 months with a new man in my life, and how spending time in a canvas tote bag between houses(half at mine and half at his each week) is making me look at all the stuff I have and how it really doesn't matter. It is about the time we spend with the people we have in our lives which adds the meaning and purpose to it.....who cares about the stuff and the level of being immaculate. You are an amazing person, relax and take it easy and enjoy the little things.

BL, thanks. I am so happy at the way things have changed for you.

Today went well. I brought in the trash cans, went through the day's mail, dusted the bedroom and put away 1 load of laundry.

After that, I watched Dancing with Stars with DD and sewed on some patches for the new quilt that I am making.

I had wanted to clear the kitchen counters, too, but didn't get to it, and I'm not going to fret about it. I can do it tomorrow.

Yeah for you in putting off something you would have normally forced yourself into!

I had the opportunity to work some extra hours doing a demo that is a company wide promo and ran with it. At the end of the day, the manager in charge thanked me for some new ideas I came up with to sell the product, because in just 2 days, we are number one in the world in sales of this item. She also told me she called the regional to let him know what I helped to do.

I was fired up as a result and got home and had no motivation to do anything(at 945 at night), so I actually did nothing, just surfed the web!

BL: WOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO! That is great that the manager recognized your efforts and made it known to higher ups. I am glad you decided to treat yourself to an evening off!

Liz: I want you to know that your advice to give the whole room a once over with the micro fiber cloth and deep clean one piece of furniture with the furniture polish did the trick for me, yesterday. I dusted the entire bedroom, including window sills, with the micro-fiber cloth and then, used the canned spray stuff (it's not real furniture polish, I know, but then, most of my furniture isn't real, either - it's mostly particle board with a veneer, masquerading as walnut!) But it satisfied the need to "really dust"!